Brewing Tomorrow! First Brew!

[Biff]

Hi all,
I just purchased most of my brewing equipment this evening. I've done tons of studying and I'm brewing tomorrow! I have a few questions for all you great brewers!

First, what I've got:
- 6 Gallon Carboy
- PBW & Star San
- Fermtech Siphon Starter
- Fermtech bottle filler
- racking tubing
- blowoff tube
- Orange Carboy "Cap" (the two hole deal)
- Hydrometer
- 3 piece airlock
- Other cleaning stuff

Second, the recipe....
It's a Porter, extract w/ specialty grains

8 lb Amber malt extract syrup
1.5 lb Dark Crystal Malt
0.5 lb Black Patent Malt
0.5 lb Chocolate Malt

0.75 oz Amarillo @ 60 min left
0.5 oz Cascade @ 30 min left
0.5 oz Cascate @ 10 min (I will probably add at 5 min) left

White Labs Irish Ale Yeast (WLP004)

Third, some questions....

1. The 3 piece airlock doesn't appear to fit in the carboy cap. I was thinking about widening a hole on the cap, any thoughts?

2. Why does the carboy cap have two holes? One for an airlock, the other for a racking cane? My siphon starter doesn't look like it's compatible with that

3. I got some blowoff tube -- It appears to fit fairly snugly in the top of the carboy. Any suggestions/hints as to how far it's gotta go in so it doesn't pop out? It's quite wide, so I don't anticipate a ton of pressure on it

4. I don't have any equipment for a yeast starter. I will "soon". Do you think I should pitch two vials instead of just one?

5. I will be doing a partial boil (2.5G in a 4G Pot)... Most folks say the topoff water can just be out of the tap. Is that ok? I was thinking about boiling and cooling my topoff water to stave off the possibilty of infection. Any ideas?

6. I'm in Denver, CO -- so ~5300 feet above sea level, and very dry air. What kind of evaporation rates can I expect? I'm guessing a lot. Trying to figure out how much water to start the boil with, etc.

All I can think of for now. Thanks very much in advance for your help tomorrow. I will probably in the chat room tomorrow morning around 8am MST.

[Homegrown Hops]

Steve rather than post a bunch of blabber here I will try and get to the chat early in the morning. I am brewing again tomorrow(brewed a Wit Today) and need to be up early anyway.

Cheers,
HH

[Dr Scott]

Hi all,
I just purchased most of my brewing equipment this evening. I've done tons of studying and I'm brewing tomorrow! I have a few questions for all you great brewers!

First, what I've got:
- 6 Gallon Carboy
- PBW & Star San
- Fermtech Siphon Starter
- Fermtech bottle filler
- racking tubing
- blowoff tube
- Orange Carboy "Cap" (the two hole deal)
- Hydrometer
- 3 piece airlock
- Other cleaning stuff

Second, the recipe....
It's a Porter, extract w/ specialty grains

8 lb Amber malt extract syrup
1.5 lb Dark Crystal Malt
0.5 lb Black Patent Malt
0.5 lb Chocolate Malt

0.75 oz Amarillo @ 60 min left
0.5 oz Cascade @ 30 min left
0.5 oz Cascate @ 10 min (I will probably add at 5 min) left

White Labs Irish Ale Yeast (WLP004)

Third, some questions....

.

Awesome & good luck. A porter will make a great first brew!

1. The 3 piece airlock doesn't appear to fit in the carboy cap. I was thinking about widening a hole on the cap, any thoughts? It works better w/ a stopper. If you cut some of the large part back you should be able to get the airlock in there. But a stopper is better.

2. Why does the carboy cap have two holes? One for an airlock, the other for a racking cane? My siphon starter doesn't look like it's compatible with that. I use the second one to start a siphon w/ my racking cane. You don't need it w/ a siphon starter. But don't worry about that now.

3. I got some blowoff tube -- It appears to fit fairly snugly in the top of the carboy. Any suggestions/hints as to how far it's gotta go in so it doesn't pop out? It's quite wide, so I don't anticipate a ton of pressure on it. Shouldn't be a problem if it fits snugly. I use a smaller one w/ the carboy cap

4. I don't have any equipment for a yeast starter. I will "soon". Do you think I should pitch two vials instead of just one? One should be fine, let it warm to room temp before pitching. Do the starter next time...

5. I will be doing a partial boil (2.5G in a 4G Pot)... Most folks say the topoff water can just be out of the tap. Is that ok? I was thinking about boiling and cooling my topoff water to stave off the possibilty of infection. Any ideas? No, It's not OK! Boil and cool your top up water tonight if you can. Make about 4gals so you will have extra

6. I'm in Denver, CO -- so ~5300 feet above sea level, and very dry air. What kind of evaporation rates can I expect? I'm guessing a lot. Trying to figure out how much water to start the boil with, etc. Leave enough room in the pot to start, for boil over protection. You could get ~1gal/hr boil off, but that will vary. You can add back water to the boil pot near the end and then bring it back to a boil for the last 15min
All I can think of for now. Thanks very much in advance for your help tomorrow. I will probably in the chat room tomorrow morning around 8am MST

[Big Chooch]

Congrats on your first brew! I'm going to be brewing my first all grain this weekend. Maybe it's a good weekend for firsts.

Doc Scott pretty much answered all of your questions and he is like a brewing genius around here (there goes his ego!) However, you asked about using the airlock with the carboy cap. I also use the three piece airlock with the orange carboy cap. It'll take some struggling, but you can fit it in there without cutting it (trust me). It'll be pretty damn snug, but I kinda like that. At least you know it has a good seal. Personally, I hate stoppers. Eventually, you'll push one into the carboy and thats a pain is the arse! Also, I like to push transfer using CO2. Much easier task with the cap vs. the stopper. It's a lot easier to use a thermowell (eventually you may want to) with the cap. Furthermore, I just dont trust the seal on some of my stoppers. It's all up to you, but that's my two cents.

[bub]

Glad to hear you are ready to start brewing!!
I use the 3 piece and cap all the time... otherwise Dr. Scott is correct.
BUB

[Biff]

Well, I must thank bub, Henning, linuxelf, Dr. Scott, Homegrown, Chooch, and everyone else for their help!

Here's my recap from brew day. I'm fairly excited about my first brew! I think all the research I did has paid off a bit. The biggest unknown for me yesterday was my process. It worked out pretty good, and I only had one mishap. First, the mishap....

So I built a wort chiller yesterday morning, but couldn't get the hose adapter to work with our "pull-out" style kitchen faucet. So I had to dangle the tubing out the window to the hose faucet. Well, I got it all in place, then went outside to turn on the water. Unfortunately, the drain hose wasn't secure enough and it started spraying all over. Water everywhere! Oh well! Something had to happen on brew day!

Now, some notes...

- My stove (flat top electric number from Kenmore) couldn't keep 3 Gallons of wort boiling. It was really hot, and there was convection, but nothing like the "rolling boil" I hear most homebrewers talking about

- I tried to be really careful wrt sanitation, but we'll see how things turn out

- The immersion chiller did a really good job of getting the wort to 80 degrees or so, However, the topoff water was still cooling from the morning and it was probably still around 80 too. Bottom line is it took about 3 hours in an cold water bath (a little ice too) to get it down to about 73. I pitched at that temp and got the airlock in there and moved the carboy to the basement

- I also spaced aeration. I didn't aerate it until about 2.5 hours after I pitched, I aerated again 5 hours later. I don't have a "stone" or anything, just shaking the carboy (which I know doesn't help that much). I did get some foam on the top though

- I didn't do a yeast starter -- I will do one next time.

Other than the above, I think things went really well! The steeping grains were very easy to do, although messy. At this the, the carboy is still not bubbling, but if I shake it, I get a couple bubbles through the carboy. I'm taking that as a positive thing, we'll just see how things go. Oh, and the fermometer reported 64, is this too cold?

Again, thanks to all who helped me along the way!

[bub]

put a t-shirt over it. it will help it stay warm..
no 64 is ok don't fret... it may take a little bit longer to finish but only a couple days.
BUB

[Biff]

Thanks bub! I did put a t-shirt over it last night, thinking the same thing. It maintained 64 through the night, we'll see how high it gets during the day.

GOOD NEWS! I just checked and the airlock is bubbling. It's not vigorous, but it's comin along! Very cool